Essay Why College Athletes Should Be Paid

College sports have grown over the years, earning billions of revenue every year. However, what may seem surprising is that the athletes involved do not get a single penny earned from the revenue. These college sports require tremendous time and determination due to long hard practices along with rigorous course works. And due to the lack of time, athletes don’t often have the time for part time jobs that allow them to earn money to buy things they need or want for their personal life. Therefore, college athletes have every right to be paid for their hard work.

One reason that college athletes should be paid is because they earn their revenue that is distributed to coaches and colleges they represent. And is it not unusual to not even receive a little percentage of it. Major college sports earn around $11 billion dollars according to Marc Edelman who is an associate professor of law at Zicklin School of Business. According to Edelman, colleges that partake in college sports can earn up to $100 million in revenue. This revenue is used for paying coaches, college campus, and etc. This distribution of money is not wrong and has good intention. However, colleges spend too much on their expenses and don’t recognize the efforts of the athletes. For example, according Marc

Edelman, “football coaches at the 44 NCAA Bowl Championship Series schools received on average $2.1 million in salaries.” This is excessive pay since coaches can earn more than 160 times the average wage of some public school teacher. Although the coaches are paid excessive, players are paid very little compared to the sum couches receive, but they receive these amounts only through scholarships. College athletes’ scholarship only covers tuition, which is very unreasonable compared to the amount of revenue they bring in. The NCAA uses these athletes for “free labor” according to Marcus Thompson II, and he says that the NCAA calls “its moneymakers "student athletes” for profit.
Another reason college athletes should be paid is because, these athletes go through rigorous time consuming practice.

A college athlete usually practices his/her sport nearly 40 hours a week according to Alexander LaCasse. Other sources such as Business Insider show college athletes practice for about 45 hours a week. An average adult with a typical job works the same amount of hours as these athletes practice for the sports. Besides these practice hours, they also have to keep up with the course works in order to get good grades in class to paly these sports. This seem like they have twice the workload than an average student. Consequently, they should be receiving more as they deserve

it.
Some may argue college athletes are students, hence amateurs. Also some believe that they are getting the recognition and fame they deserve and the free tuition from prestigious colleges. Although they are students many college athletes spent and put the same amount of effort as professionals. Also they can be compared to students working in a campus book store. They both work for the school, but student working in book store gets paid so should college athletes. Not only this, according to John Oliver, a late night-talk host, who says college tournaments such as March Madness, earns more revenue than the Super bowl. This shows that even amateurs bring in revenue, even more than the professionals, and should be compensated for their hard work.
Overall, college athletes work hard, even more than an average student who probably gets a higher pay than them. They lead two lives: one as a student and another as an athlete. They should be recognized for their hard work. Even more than fame and name out there, they need the money. They need to be rest assured that what they are doing is worth their time and effort. They entertain us by their hard work and they need to be rewarded so that they know that their hard work and effort is being appreciated.